The Hanging of Angélique: The Untold Story of Canadian Slavery and the Burning of Old Montréal

Nanette Morton teaches English at McMaster University in Hamilton.

In April 1734, a large portion of Montreal burned to the ground. The
fire was blamed on Marie-Josephe Angélique, an African slave who had
exchanged angry words with her mistress. Presumed guilty and denied
legal counsel, Angélique was tried, tortured, and hanged. What was her
motive? Some, including modern Canadian playwright Lorena Gale, imply
that Angélique was in love with Tibault, the white indentured servant
and accomplice who was never caught. Cooper, however, suggests a simpler
motive—freedom. More significant, perhaps, is the motive behind the
story’s obscurity. Ordinarily a fire of this size, coming at this
point in Canadian history, would be dutifully covered in most school
texts. This event has been mysteriously ignored by most mainstream
Canadian histories, perhaps because documenting it would force us to
confront the history of slavery in Canada—a fact so thoroughly ignored
that most Canadians are still ignorant of its existence. This book is,
therefore, a unique and groundbreaking contribution to Canadian history.


Taking the trial of Angélique as her starting point, Afua Cooper
retells the familiar story of Canada’s early development, pointing out
that slave labour played an important part in both the development of
New France and the English colony it subsequently became. Noting that
Angélique was born in Portugal and hoped to return there, Cooper
details the ways in which New France was enmeshed in the Atlantic slave
trade. She also details the busy slave trade that existed between what
is now Canada and England’s southern colonies, pointing out that, at
the beginning of the 19th century, escaping slaves ran south to New York
State, rather than north to Canada.

A historian and poet, Cooper tells the story in clear, precise prose.
Although some of her material is potentially dry, she relates it with
enthusiasm, elegance, and a minimum of distortion.